First-Line Nivolumab in Stage IV or Recurrent NSCLC

What You Need to Know:

When compared to chemotherapy, nivolumab did not significantly lengthen the time of progression-free survival but did produce a similar overall survival rate in patients with programmed death ligand 1 (PD-L1)–positive non–small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC).

Trial Design:

Open-label phase 3 trial compared the efficacy of nivolumab with platinum-based chemotherapy in patients with “untreated stage IV or recurrent NSCLC and a PD-L1 tumor-expression level of 1% or more”

Patients were randomized (1:1) to receive 3 mg/kg of body weight of nivolumab administered intravenously once every 2 weeks or up to 6 cycles of platinum-based chemotherapy administered once every 3 weeks

Cross over to receive nivolumab occurred in chemotherapy-treated patients at the time of disease progression